Stolen Innocence
by McGonagall's Bola
Summary: No one ever knew that Minerva McGonagall had had quite a role in Grindelwald's defeat in 1945. However, she had… even though of course, he had gone down under Albus' magical superiority in the end. AD/MM -REWRITTEN!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

No one ever knew that Minerva McGonagall had had quite a role in Grindelwald's defeat in 1945. However, she had… even though of course, he had gone down under Albus' magical superiority in the end.

Minerva McGonagall had loved and lost in war as well as many others, and even though her age, the younger Gryffindor had coped… admirably, and that particular fact had left Albus Dumbledore with possibly even more respect for the girl, who had later become his successor as a professor in Transfiguration, then the Head of Gryffindor House and deputy headmistress. There had been a reason why she had left the Ministry after two years only…

Minerva McGonagall was such a very remarkable witch and woman, even though it might be hard to believe at that moment. She seemed so very… fragile, her countenance barely contrasting with the too white sheets upon the single hospital bed.

He regretted being unable to sit openly by her side, due to the situation with Umbridge… who had driven him from the chair of the headmaster and taken his position… even though Hogwarts itself had not quite agreed. He truly hated pulling his magic to himself to become invisible only to sit by the side of the witch he loved. It shouldn't have had to be that way. He sighed.

He never would forgive that poor excuse of a woman for that what her little followers from the Ministry had done to his beloved Minerva… He just hoped she would make it, because from the shards of conversation Albus had caught earlier when Poppy Pomfrey had been there, it did not look very good, and it seemed as if they doubted about whether or not she even would make it through the night. He knew that if she didn't make it, he would quite happily rot into Azkaban for that what he would do to Dolores Umbridge after that. Albus Dumbledore was usually calm and such in his manners, but once you actually harmed his loved ones, you hurt him just as well… and you would regret it. Gone would be the glimmer in his vivid blue eyes, replaced by cold fury.

Albus was grateful enough for Poppy having thought of him, having sent a neatly worded Patronus informing him of what had happened. Poppy Pomfrey was one of the few who knew how close they were and how rare it actually was for either one of them to confide into another as they did in each other. Seeing her lying there was pure torture. He quietly sat down on the edge of the bed and lay his invisible hand down on her pale one. Nothing changed, and somehow Albus hadn't anticipated it, even though he of course wished it. "Oh Minerva…" he whispered.

He bowed his head and thought of the last time he had seen her laying in a hospital bed, the same kind of despair as then curling around his heart and tightening… clamping down… Minerva McGonagall had been barely twenty years old when she had been stripped from nearly all innocence she had had… and he… had witnessed…

He had been stupid… so stupid… One unguarded little moment had been enough to fall into the trap that Gellert had set for him. Gellert Grindelwald had been his very best companion… once upon a time, and knew his manners: his strengths and his weaknesses altogether. From the moment word had fallen Albus Dumbledore himself had left the confines of Hogwarts Castle to go look for the enemy, Gellert had waited… He had merely waited, having left an invitation for Albus. Gellert Grindelwald hadn't even tried to hide, for he knew that by the same token Albus Dumbledore knew his style just as well and would possibly find him either way in the end. Grindelwald had gone by the belief that if they would ever meet, he would be the one leaving the duel that was sure to follow as the winner. Maybe he would actually have if it hadn't been for Minerva.

Grindelwald hadn't wanted to fight at first, but had wanted to convince his old pal from half a century therefore to join him in the run to power again, for of course with the two of them together there was no other alternative but to obtain. They could be great together...

Gellert had had the upper hand all the time in the relationship/companionship, mainly by abusing the fact that he knew Albus loved him… and had given him… his body… to convince him he loved him in return when he really hadn't… never had… Grindelwald, like Voldemort, was a type of person that found it hard to believe there was actually worse than physical pain and at the very same time a body was nothing but a body to him… basically meaningless. Grindelwald had known that others were stupid enough to value emotion higher than the physical, had abused that fact. Physical connection sometimes lead to an even stronger one emotionally. That had been so in their case when Grindelwald had accepted him intimately and had returned those favors.

Albus Dumbledore secretly had a weakness for everyone that had seemed to get him and had seemed to want him… There had just never been a woman… until then, at least. Falling once or twice for one of the same gender really didn't make one gay entirely. Curiosity and boyish foolishness and the desire to be loved by anyone did not make you gay and incapable of loving a woman.

Gellert had had him locked up into the dungeon of the mansion where he remained for the time being – he had often travelled. He had really thought that it would make Albus more pliable in the end, but Albus Dumbledore had changed much more than he might have believed in those forty-six years… He had no longer been the naïve boy from then. Grindelwald had been sadly mistaken, even though he had so strongly believed he would in the end give either way as more innocent died on his rise for might… Albus was a person who thought of others' welfare highly, and thus maybe he would have achieved, had it not been for Minerva McGonagall…

It had never been his intention to let Albus die, though. He himself had offered one glass of water and one slice of stale bread every day at nightfall in the four days that Albus had been imprisoned in the mansion.

A sigh escaped Albus' lips as his eyes fell upon her closed eyelids, her loose graying hair spilling beside her face on the pillow. It had still been pure ebony that day… the fourth day since Albus had run full force into Gellert's trap… when she had suddenly joined him…

_Albus quietly sat down on his knees by the whimpering mass on the cold floor. The younger woman that had been taken to join him in the dungeon was seemingly in a lot of pain caused by undoubtedly many injuries, and was barely conscious. He wasn't as stupid so as not to believe she must have been cursed by Unforgiveable Curses. The Cruciatus was sadly one of Gellert's and his cronies' favorites… and especially on women of her age… sometimes even a little younger._

_He reached for her slowly, unsure whether a touch would be actually warranted. He didn't really know what she had been through already, even though she was obviously injured. He didn't know who she was or how she had gotten captured or why, but there must be something particular about her… a reason why she had been kept alive and had not been murdered on the spot._

_"Please… don't," Minerva whispered, as if actually feeling his hand near. She couldn't possibly have seen it in the darkness of the cell. Maybe it merely was intuition, considering most tended to feel the urge to reach over and touch the other in that situation: hold them, comfort them…_

_"Minerva?"_

From the moment those words had left her mouth, Albus had known. Minerva had replied him in a tone that had momentarily made him wonder whether she hadn't known whom he was. Albus had never actually found it had been the particular smell of sandalwood which she had long associated with him that had given him away. "Yes, Professor."

Albus Dumbledore truly hated the innocent being hurt and certainly when those innocent were former pupils of his… formerly under his care. It made him feel guiltier. His heart had sunk upon those two words of confirmation and had resolved even more to stay there with each second passing in which the truth uneasily penetrated… and in which Minerva had told him about her having gotten captured upon arriving home from the Ministry, having found both her mother and father motionless, just like both of her younger brothers.

No new information on Grindelwald had been found in quite a while already – mere days – and the Minister himself had sent them all personally home until more news would come upon how to find Grindelwald, a bunch of his cronies… or him, everyone by then having suspected already that Grindelwald must have caught him.

Her coming home had been unanticipated considering up until then with the deaths and raids and… she had basically been at the Ministry 24/7 for the past two weeks, occasionally sending owls home just to inform one another they were all right. They hadn't doubted long, though… Minerva had admitted to having been cursed and to Grindelwald himself having told her that those who had chosen to take her to him, her name famous as one of the best pupils Hogwarts had known, would be rewarded royally. He had ordered them to take her down to his other guest until he was… ready to get to know her a little better and more intimately.

Minerva McGonagall wasn't stupid. She had immediately known what it would possibly mean. Her voice had choked upon saying it. He himself had known from the very moment the words had left her lips, too.

His vivid blue eyes remained glued to her face. She was still beautiful, even though the laughter lines and gray… She had been even more so the day when her innocence had been stripped from her… by him…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_"He'll rape me," she said, finally having come to sit upright leaning against the wall with some aid of her former teacher. "He'll be my very first," she said with a strange kind of boldness she would often be considered to lack if it came to her emotions as a teacher herself, "and he'll revel in that fact… He'll hope that it'll define me for the rest of my life and that I'll recall it every time I'm with another…" She remained gazing straight ahead in the dimness, Albus sitting right beside her in silence. "I would have liked to be stronger than that," she added, her voice barely a whisper, "but I must admit the mere thought of him… makes me feel nauseous already…"_

_"I'm sorry, Minerva," Albus finally said. "I should have… Had I not allowed myself that one moment of incautiousness, I might not have gotten myself caught, and maybe by now it would have been over already. You never would have been captured either, and your family would still be unharmed and alive."_

_"Please… don't blame yourself. I don't blame you," she said, head shaking. "You couldn't have possibly…"_

_"I could," he argued, anger at himself taking over. He felt like he could, and should, have anticipated just that, having been Grindelwald's former best companion. Even though it seemed to have been more than a lifetime, Gellert Grindelwald had not changed much at all._

_"No, you couldn't," Minerva retorted, painfully resettling against the cold wall. "If so, then I'm to blame just as well."_

_"Minerva…"_

_"I know I'm not," Minerva said, immediately continuing in a… surprisingly sure tone even though the pain. "I hadn't anticipated it. After all, who would have anticipated to be unsafe at their own home? I didn't have my wand at the ready for a duel, and so I was a rather easy victim. I couldn't defend myself, even though I might and should have, had I been a little more cautious, a little more vigil or suspicious. I'm an official at the Ministry, and I have been trained to be all of those! However, I was… neither, and I got captured, even though I wasn't really their main goal."_

_"You have no idea how much that I wish I could change it, Minerva."_

_"I know," she whispered, a silence falling between them in which neither of them moved but just quietly mulled over their own thoughts. Eventually Minerva would be the one to break their state of quiescence, and her voice sounded awkward and the hidden request unnaturally straightforward for her doing, even though as a younger woman she yet wasn't so very reserved as she would become in later years, partially due to that very particular event. "Could you love me?" she asked. _

_Albus turned to her in the darkness, a little surprised by the forwardness of the question and not really getting where the younger woman was about to go with it, even though maybe unconsciously he did after all. "I… care about you very much, Minerva," he said. "I have taught you for seven years, and that until two years ago. You were in Gryffindor House – the House of which I have been appointed as the Head since long. I have trained you myself to become an Animagus."_

A small smile tainted his lips at the far recollection. In the beginning of October, Minerva had come to him with the question whether he thought she could actually be good enough to become an Animagus. Unsurprisingly, she had been reading ahead and had been interested in it. Few dared to dip their toes in it, considering the difficulty of that sort of magic. Minerva's grades had never been anything else but extraordinary and many – he himself, too – had told her she could easily reach mastery levels in most of her courses, especially Transfiguration, for young Minerva was able to do things with her wand that quite many could only ever dream of, even of the older generations.

Albus had said that yes, he thought she was qualified enough if she entertained the thought. He then had offered to send an owl to the Ministry to request more information in case she would like that… She had beamed and nodded vigorously. So he had sent the owl the very same evening and had received an envelope in the middle of the week following with all information needed on Animagi and the required registration with the Ministry contained, together with some papers that needed be filled in and approved in case the person on whose behalf Albus had sent the mail to begin with, would like to go through with it. Penalties on unregistered Animagi were heavy, and considering one needed to hand in the initial approval papers with the registration of one's shape later…

The Ministry required supervision by a master in Transfiguration no matter skills or age of the one who had ambition. Minerva hadn't doubted even momentarily whether he himself would be the one to supervise and train her in becoming an Animagus. When he had read through all the information and had mentioned the need for a supervisor, Minerva had eyed him with one eyebrow raised and had said that Albus would do just fine in a tone that meant the end of the discussion even though it had not sounded disrespectful in the least. Having taught her mother as well, Albus knew that it was an integral trait of the women in her mother's family to know what they really wanted.

He had helped her fill in the necessary paper work, and within forty-eight hours, another, smaller envelope had arrived with the received approval and further instructions like how long they advised the person in question to train daily… Albus had wondered whether the fame of young Minerva McGonagall's intelligence and magical skills – which undoubtedly must have reached the Ministry itself – might have contributed to the rather fast response and easy approval.

At the beginning of November, about a month after she had gone to Albus with her one question about the chapter on Animagi, they agreed on meeting on Wednesdays after dinner in the Great Hall and Saturday afternoons after midday meal. By the middle of the month of February, she had first transformed entirely into a cat. By May, Minerva McGonagall had received exceptional permission from the headmaster to leave the school to take her test at the Ministry, which she of course passed with flying colors first time.

_Minerva McGonagall was truly an exceptionally powerful little witch, and Albus surmised that Gellert Grindelwald knew the very same, too._

_"That's not what I asked," she said._

_"What are you asking?" Albus questioned._

_She sighed, heavily leaning her head against the wall behind it. Her mind was reeling so fast that she thought it might burst soon. The thought of that filthy… touching her where no one else had ever been permitted, was far more than Minerva could take. Grindelwald wouldn't care about her permission, would take what was not his to be taken either way… The bile in her throat rose higher each second she thought about it. "I'll be damned to let him be the first one," she said, and she knew that he would interpret the little sequence of words just like she actually meant them._

_She feared Albus Dumbledore would consider her weak for even suggesting or mad that they… He, however, said nothing. So, she continued, "If I could, I would like not to give him the satisfaction of taking what's not his to be taken. I know that… the circumstances are far from ideal, but it won't stop him, and I rather recall my first time to be with someone who at least cared very much about me," she said, forcing the last words from her mouth as her heart hammered hard against her ribcage, her voice overtaken by quiet sobs at the little of opportunities in their situation and the panic she felt at what would be happening soon._

_In the dimness, his hand reached for hers and squeezed it, lifting it to his mouth and kissing it, sealing their little pact._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Indeed, he had been the one taking her innocence that night in February, even though the circumstances had all been but ideal. Minerva had been injured and hurting. The dungeon had not contained anything but him and her, leaving them with no means of comfort. Grindelwald himself, or most likely one of his little pals, might have announced themselves unexpectedly, the sounds of the creaking stairs giving one only mere seconds of anticipation. She had been right, though… It would not stop him, and that realization combined with the gnawing guilt that maybe just maybe it hadn't had to happen had rendered him unable to deny her heartfelt plea. He had understood her fear somehow…

He had quietly pulled on her hand, coaxing her legs about until Minerva sat straddling his lap and carefully leaning in to kiss her, their lips barely touching… one hand tenderly lingering on her jaw line while the other had come to rest above her full bosom, not daring to go further. They had not spoken when she had quietly lead his hand lower. They had not spoken at all, as both of them had closed their eyes, imagining that they were still with each other but in other circumstances… better circumstances…

They had not spoken until it had eventually been time, Albus' soft voice sounding first, "I'll try to be gentle…" His voice had sounded hoarse and surreal even to his own ears, him not quite believing he was actually doing it and obliging her heartfelt plea… but he had always loved her deep inside, and she had basically admitted to loving him in not so obvious wordings as well…

"I know," she had softly replied, and her unyielding confidence in him, like Minerva had shown when she had stated she believed in his aptness in Transfiguration to guide her in becoming an Animagus, had caused unconscious tears to glitter in his penetrating eyes.

It surely had been a very uncomfortable position for him, but Albus had hoped that it would be least painful for her, giving her the upper hand… His heart had plummeted as a wince and soft cry escaped her lips when they joined intimately, though. A stray tear had run down his cheek as he had held her, gently humming in her ear as he tenderly stroked her lower spine, Minerva hid her face in his shoulder, trying to calm herself, controlling her intakes of air while getting used to the entirely foreign feeling.

The thought of another doing that to her soon enough, one who would not at all be gentle, had frightened her more with the event… and at the same time it had strengthened her to know that he would not get the satisfaction of being her first, and until that day did Minerva believe that that thought had saved her then and had saved the rest of her life until she could make love to her late husband without issues. Her very first time had not been rape, and that truly had made all the difference. It certainly had been hard at first especially, but she didn't believe she ever would have dealt so well with it had nothing happened between her and Albus first.

Minerva was a true fighter… She had lived through so much already and had saved and enlightened so many lives already… She could not die on him. Minerva had saved him just as well and still enlightened his life every single day even though she might not know. He didn't know whether he could do without her anymore, even though they had never been intimately joined anymore, and all between them had remained purely platonic for the rest of their relationship – that even though they knew of the other's love still being there even half a century after that day. That's what might have gotten them both through the hard period following the defeat of Grindelwald. Albus had feared that there would be immense awkwardness, but there hadn't been… then again they hadn't seen much of one another until Minerva had gotten finally discharged. He had of course visited sometimes, but most of the time that had been very late in the day when she had been asleep and when he hadn't wanted to wake her. Most of the time it had already been after visiting hours, but who would have thought of denying the wizard that had relieved their world from the first dark wizard, to visit his former pupil?

Minerva and Albus had been inseparable since in every other way, though. In their hearts they had always been more than what their conversations and actions showed. They had always known it, and yet neither of them had ever acted on it. She had even gotten married… even though the marriage hadn't lasted long.

"Oh Minerva…" he whispered once more, the childish belief flaring that hearing her own name fall from his lips would be a comfort to her even in the state she was. She had truly saved him… has saved both of them...

Indeed, one of Grindelwald's cronies had come soon enough to take her to his master. Albus had never known just how long she must have been up there, but it had been pure torture, every second of it. Minerva's screams still made the hair on his arms rise with the mere memory. When Minerva had finally been returned, she had been crying, and the few words she released had made him feel guiltier than ever before that night. "The b-blood gave us away… He was not pleased."

Between the overwhelming feelings of guilt, the light in the darkness had, however… shone then as well. Finding her curled up like a cat upon reaching for her, Albus had suddenly realized something and had told her that he believed Grindelwald might have made a mistake, but that she was the one of them two who could test it. Grindelwald must have realized that she wasn't just any ordinary little witch, but Albus had doubted whether he could have guessed that she was an Animagus, too. Animagi were certainly rare, and her captivity had been unanticipated… The advantage of her feline shape was that she was far smaller and more agile… Plus those little claws could hurt when they sank into someone's face.

On the fourth effort, Minerva had finally been able to transform into a cat, the overwhelming pain disabling her of really focusing long and hard enough. Maybe Grindelwald had forgotten. If he had known to begin with, maybe Grindelwald had thought she would not be able to transform in such pain… Maybe he had thought that it would not give them any advantage. He had been mistaken, and Minerva's being an Animagus – an effort of them both – had eventually saved them both as well. They had both escaped that same night, Minerva having launched herself with her very last strength on the tall man coming to give them water and stale bread.

He had immediately Portkeyed her to St. Mungo's before Minerva had a chance to argue while he had remained behind to finish the job. She had heard from others later on how legendary the duel had been, and even though initially mad, in the end she had been glad he had sent her away, for she had needed be healed.

He tenderly enveloped her hand in his and felt it move weakly. He smiled. She was not defeated like she had not been then. She would never be. And the thought in his head made his heart leap and his chest swell with pride. He had always been proud of her and would always continue to be. Just like he had always loved her. He had made the mistake of not telling her after the first time, of letting her go to find her happiness in the arms of another after many denials he suspected maybe were because of him and what they had done. This time Albus vowed he would tell her, though. He would not make the very same mistake twice. This time he would not let go…


End file.
